Suns Cross Country Hosts Arvin

It’s not often when placing 28th in a race is considered a strong finish, but for Del Oro senior Noel Huato it was nothing to take lightly. Huato finished 28th out of 269 runners from across California and other states at the annual Woodbridge Classic on Sept. 20 in Irvine. For the Suns boys cross country team, it was a solid performance going into the South Yosemite Horizon League dual meets. The Suns host Arvin this afternoon as they look to capture another SYHL title.

Huato was Del Oro’s lone entry in the Doug Speck Sweepstakes race at the Woodbridge Classic, which featured the top runners in the western United States. He finished with a time of 14 minutes, 20.6 seconds – nearly 20 seconds faster than his third-place finish last year of 14:38.7 in the varsity boys’ 3-mile race.

“The feeling of just being in that race was amazing but terrible when you’re in there pushing and literally fighting for a spot,” Huato said.

Experience proved to be crucial at the Woodbridge Classic as the Suns placed 34th in the Varsity rated race. Del Oro’s top three runners were sophomore Jesus Torres, who finished 42nd with a time of 15:02, senior Alex Garcia at 142nd with a time of 15:45, and sophomore Rodrigo Guerra at 180th at 16:00.

Torres, who was a medalist in the race, described his experience at Woodbridge.

“It was really fun, exciting, and fast,” he said.

Freshman Dariel Rodriguez has had a strong start to his first season with the team and was one of the runners in the rated varsity race.

“I think I performed really well,” he said. “Considering we had a tough week before the race, I think I did really well.”

The varsity B and frosh/soph teams also finished strong. The frosh/soph team scored 489 points for a 19th-place finish. The varsity B team came in 40th place with 1,052 points.

The girls team was led by seniors Susana Jacome and Sonia Alba. Jacome finished 116th with a time of 20:48 while Alba placed 172th with a time of 22:24. Junior Valerie Vargas finished in 188th place, freshman Mayra Hill came in 193rd place, and senior BellaMaria Perez in 194th place.

All of Del Oro’s cross country teams finished first at the Morro Bay Invitational on Sept. 13. Huato finished first overall for Del Oro with a time of 15:28.6. Garcia and Torres also finished among the top ten. Garcia came in eighth place with a personal record time of 16:24.4. Torres ran a personal best of 16:32.3 for ninth place. The varsity team finished with 71 points while the second-place school, Rio Mesa High from Oxnard, picked up 88 points.

“The sand in Morro Bay was horrible,” Huato said. “The course was longer than last year, and I never thought it would be way harder.”

As for goals this season, Alba, Torres and Rodriguez were upbeat.

“I want to run faster every race and be able to do something at state,” said Torres.

Rodriguez said he intends to remain a key part of the team next season.

“In the future, I would like to compete at the national level and just keep getting better and better,” he said.

As for the girls, Alba talked about improvement.

“This season I hope to keep improving my times and be more consistent,” she said. “My goal is to give it my all each race and just have fun since it’s my last year racing.”